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‘More money for Generals but Funding for Universities Faces Cuts’

The federal government has cut its allocation for higher
education in the latest budget proposal but there appears to be no desire to
pare the defense budget. The federal
government “drastically reduced funding for the HEC this year, with overall
cuts amounting to Rs18 billion, although Rs13 billion have been allocated for
‘knowledge economy’.” According to a news
story “in the ongoing financial year 2018-19, the federal government had
allocated Rs45 billion for the HEC’s non-development budget, but later cut that
to Rs37 billion.” Investment in people and education are what make or break a
society. The recent funding cuts show that what Pakistan’s establishment cares
about is solely money for itself – the military – and not for the average
Pakistani.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) recently announced
that it would stop funding any new public universities. According to HEC
Chairman Dr Banuri “no funding will be provided to the new universities. He
said that money is tight to fund the operations of existing universities, which
makes it even harder to set aside funds for new ones.” According to HEC
Chairman Dr Banuri “the federal government did not release the full amount. He
said that only Rs18 billion was actually given to the commission, while the
remaining budget was not released due to the state of the national economy. In
reply to a question, he said the HEC had demanded Rs103 billion from the
federal government for recurring grants to public universities, but only Rs59
billion has been marked for the non-development grant. “We have asked the VCs
of public universities to increase fees to fill the budget deficit while also
banning new hiring,” he said.”

Many Vice chancellors across the country have spoken
out against this. “Sufism University VC Dr Perveen Munshi said that
although the HEC has issued an NOC for admissions, it gave no grant, while the
provincial government has allocated Rs1 billion. Dr Munshi, who is also looking
after the affairs of Begum Nusrat Bhutto University, was critical of this move
by the HEC, saying that old universities are provided billions of rupees, which
leaves no budget for the new universities. Government College University
Hyderabad Acting VC Dr Nasiruddin Sheikh also confirmed to The Express Tribune
that no funds had been allocated by the HEC or the provincial government for
the upcoming fiscal year. He said he had tried to meet the Sindh chief minister
to discuss the issue, and had discussed it with the Universities and Boards
secretary, but the meetings were fruitless.”